Gamestar Forum In Real Life, Book 1: The Mansion
by Rueffles
Summary: Zen, Epsilon, Shad, Mystic, Nitrox, Widum, Forever, M2, Green, James, and Leap finally got their parents to agree to letting them meet each other in person! Ecstatic, the group of gamers find themselves staying in an old four-story mansion in the middle of no where. Things go on normally at first, but when strange things begin to happen staying becomes a matter of life or death.
1. Chapter 1

"James! Stop hogging the bathroom!" M2 let out a groan and rested his head against the bathroom door.

"Fine," James replied before unlocking the door and stepping out.

"Thank you," M2 began to enter the bathroom when Epsilon ran down the hall and pushed him out of the way.

"Yes! The bathroom is finally open! Thanks M2!" Epsilon shouted joyfully before closing and locking the door M2 had just been waiting outside of for half an hour.

"REALLY?!" M2 shouted. "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING TO GET IN THERE?!"

"You snooze, you lose," Epsilon answered cheerily.

"Hey. What's with all the yelling?" Zen asked groggily from the doorway of the room he shared with Widum.

"Epsi stole the bathroom!"

"So? There are at least two others you can use."

"Yeah, but they don't have my toothbrush in them!"

Zen sighed and knocked on the bathroom door. "Epsi?"

" _Yes_?"

"Give M2 his toothbrush."

"Well, if I _have_ to."

"And my toothpaste. Oh! And my comb!" M2 shouted through the wooden door.

"You know on second thought…"

"Epsilon," Zen said,"Just give them to him."

"Okay." Epsilon reached through the door and handed M2 his comb, toothbrush, and toothpaste.

"Thanks," M2 grumbled before snatching his things out of Epsilon's hand and stomping into the bathroom across the hall.

"Everything okay?" asked Shad while climbing up the stairs with two mugs of coffee in his hands.

"Ah. I see you have perfect timing, as usual," Zen commented to his friend. "It's too early for drama."

"Agreed. Coffee?" Shad asked, offering Zen one of the mugs he held.

"Don't mind if I do," Zen replied gratefully, taking the mug offered to him.

"So," Nitrox began, coming out of one of the bedrooms lining the hall,"What's today's dramatic episode? M2 putting blue food coloring in the shampoo again? Epsi scattering M2's dirty clothes all around the house?"

"Nah, man. Epsi locked M2 out of the bathroom after he'd been waiting awhile to get in there," Zen replied.

"It seems Epsi's running out of pranks finally," Shad said, handing Nitrox the other mug of coffee.

"You wish!" came Epsilon's voice from inside the bathroom.

"Now why would I waste my wishes on you?" Shad fired back calmly.

"Now, now, ladies. You're both beautiful," M2 commented as he came out of the bathroom.

"What did you say?!" both Shad and Epsilon cried in sync.

"Oooh! Someone's gonna get wrecked," Forever climbed down the steps leading up to the third story to watch the ensuing chaos. Widum could be seen repeatedly face palming at his friend's stupidity and brashness, while Nitrox just laughed.

"Come on, guys. It's barely been a week since we first arrived and you've somehow managed to get into a fight every single day. Can we just relax and enjoy our vacation?" Leap said in a soothing voice upon completing her morning walk downstairs to get coffee.

"She has a point," came Green's voice floating down from the third floor.

"Aw, c'mon. I wanted to see them fight," Forever complained.

"I wouldn't be so excited if I were you," James said after exiting the room he shared with Epsilon and M2. "I bet they fight like girls."

"WHAT'D YOU SAY, MATE?!" shouted M2.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIGHT LIKE A GIRL?! YOU SAYIN' GIRLS CAN'T FIGHT?!" Leap shouted even louder.

"THAT'S IT! GET HIM!" M2 shouted before diving at James.

Leap handed Mystic, who was looking on in surprise, her coffee cup before joining the fight. Forever jumped the last two steps to the second floor and managed to get James in a headlock, while M2 kicked him in the gut. Epsilon rolled his eyes and Shad looked slightly annoyed. Zen grinned devilishly and pounced on James's legs, pinning them down. Leap somehow managed to grab his arms and keep them from throwing any punches in self defense.


	2. Chapter 2

"Looking back, that was not the best idea," Leap said while holding an icepack to a developing black eye.

"Definitely not one of my best moments," Forever agreed attempting to stop the bleeding from her nose.

"What are you two complaining about?! I'm the one who got the worst of it!" James whined as Nitrox attempted to clean up his bloody leg. "Ow! That hurt!"

"And it'll hurt even more unless you stop squirming," Nitrox replied, obviously annoyed.

"Was it really necessary to join the fight?" Shad asked Zen while handing him a bandaid for the cut that had somehow appeared over his left eye.

"Hell yeah!"

Shad sighed as if to say 'I give up' before walking out of the kitchen, where most of the group was gathered.

"Get that thing away from me!" Green yelled while trying to evade M2's bombardment of bloody tissues.

"Keh heh heh heh heh," M2 laughed mockingly while chucking his disgusting projectiles.

"M2, leave the poor girl alone," Leap said with a sigh.

"Fine," replied M2 after throwing one last tissue.

"Mystic, can I have my coffee back now?"

"Sure," Mystic said, handing Leap her cup of now cold coffee.

"Where's Epsi?" asked Widum while walking down the stairs.

"I don't know. Probably planning something to do to ruin our lives," Zen replied.

It had now been seven days since Zen, Shad, Epsilon, Nitrox, Forever, Widum, James, Green, M2, Mystic, and Leap had arrived at the old four-story mansion. Upon arrival, Zen had claimed the second story for the men "In the name of magic!" (with Nitrox wishing to murder him all the while). The female vacationers agreed to take the third floor "In the name of Lord Grapefruit!" (with Forever wishing to kill everyone with grapefruits). After a week, things had begun to settle down at last.

"Wonder what he'll do this time," thought Mystic aloud. "Maybe it has something to do with grapefruits."

Forever looked at Mystic with murder in her eyes. She was about to say something, but was interrupted by a scream.

"Was that Shad?" asked Nitrox in surprise.

"I don't know, but I have feeling that something bad has happened," replied Green as she began to run up the stairs with the rest of the group at her heals.

Epsilon stood in the hall. He appeared to have just backed out of Shad's room. His strangely pale appearance matched with the look of terror on his face suggested that something wasn't right.

"Epsilon! What the f***?!" Zen exclaimed, pushing him out of the way. Zen entered the room only to jump back in surprise and fear. "Holy s***!"

"What is it?" Mystic asked, concern evident on her face. Immediately, she wished she hadn't asked. For it was just then she spotted some blood on the doorframe.


	3. Chapter 3

"Shad. Shad! Wake up!"

"Ugh." Shad's eyes fluttered open. He was apparently lying on the floor of his designated room. Green and Epsilon hovered over him, their concern evident on their faces, while Leap concentrated on bandaging his left forearm. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," came a voice behind him.

Shad tried to sit up to see who was talking, only to be pushed back into his original position.

"I'm not done checking you for wounds. This was the most apparent, but there may be others," Leap said calmly. "Besides, with the amount of blood you lost, standing up may not be the best idea. It will most likely end with you fainting."

"Okay…"Shad replied.

At this moment, Widum walked into the room holding some old looking books. "Shad! You're up! Good. We have some matters to discuss."

"Well, as long as we can discuss them while I'm lying down…"

"Do you wanna faint or not? Because fainting in front of people who respect you and look to you as a leader would _totally_ not be embarrassing."

"Woah! Chill! I get it!"

"Leap, he'll be fine," spoke up the voice behind Shad. Nitrox came into Shad's field of vision behind Leap. "Don't mind her. It was kind of…well, shocking to everyone to see you…"

"We all thought you were dead," explained M2, who had made himself comfortable on Shad's bed.

"Well then," Widum began, "Aside from the darkness and doom, I found these books in the library. It seems that one of the previous owners of this place had a love of history and researched this mansion's previous owners and articles about the mansion itself. These books are the remainders of his years of research."

"Where the hell did you find a library?" asked Forever.

"There's a hidden doorway behind that tapestry of a rose on the fourth floor."

"That's bulls***," said M2.

"I can show you if you want."

"Widum, I'd love to see it sometime," said a curious Leap. "However, these books seem very interesting. Mind if I look at one?"

"Not at all."

Leap opened the top book and let out a short exclamation. "The symbol! It's the same symbol!"

"What symbol? What are you guys talking about?" Shad questioned anxiously. "What's happened?"

"First, look at the wall behind you," began Nitrox. Shad glanced behind him and uttered an oath. On the wall behind him the words 'LEAVE' were written in red. "That, my dear friend, is in fact written with your own blood. Secondly, you see the bandage covering almost your entire left forearm?" Shad nodded. How could he miss it? "That is covering a symbol that was engraved in your arm. What Leap is saying is that the symbol cut into your arm is on the first page of that book. Thus, a connection has been made and we are closer to finding the son of a b**** who did this to you."

"That makes a lot more sense. What does this symbol look like?"

"This," Leap said, handing Shad the book.

"That's cut into my arm?!"

"Yes, however, could we focus on reading for a little bit?" Widum asked, handing Shad and Nitrox each a book.

Leap continued flipping through hers, this time with Green looking over her shoulder. "Wow. It appears that a lot of people have either died or have been attacked in this house," Green commented.

"Okay. The way you said that, Green, you make it sound normal," Forever said shivering. "And I can guarantee you that it is not normal."


End file.
